What is Placement Centre?

The Placement Centre is the first part of CARS & STARS Online. It is used to assess students’ reading comprehension and then place them in the correct CARS & STARS reading level.

CARS & STARS is based on reading comprehension, not year level. Students in the same year level may have different levels of comprehension. Therefore, students that are in the same class can be in different CARS & STARS levels. The Placement Centre evaluation ensures the student is placed in the correct reading level based on their ability.

A Placement Test is pre-set when a student account is created. The Intelligent Placement option will intelligently allocate the beginning Placement level for the student based on their year of birth and any data from their previous reading levels. You do not need to manually direct your students to take a Placement Test.

If you know that your students have learning differences, you can change the initial placement level to be lower than the recommended one before they take the test. For more information on reviewing and changing a student's recommended placement level, click here.

Once Student accounts have been created, your students can login and be immediately directed to the Placement Centre to have their reading comprehension assessed. Once students have completed their Placement Tests, a CARS & STARS reading level will automatically be designated for them based on the outcome. For Placement Test Settings, click here.

Please note: Students in the same year level may have differing levels of comprehension and therefore be on different CARS & STARS levels within the same class. Level AA correlates with a reading level equivalent to Prep/Reception/Foundation, Level A to Year 1 and Level H with Year 8 or higher.

Once each student has completed the placement test, a recommended reading level will be assigned to them within the Recommendation column. The result displayed in the Status column is based on a student’s results from their starting level to their finishing level, and will indicate whether a student has Maintained, Struggled or Excelled in the placement tests.

If a student achieves less than a 50% correct response rate on the placement test, the Placement Centre will recommend that they continue to move down one placement level until a suitable reading level is reached. If a student achieves between a 50% to 90% correct response rate, they will be placed at the current placement level. If a student performs exceedingly well and achieves more than 90% correct response rate, the student will continue to move up one placement level until a suitable reading level is reached. As defined by the Placement Centre, a student's suitable reading level will be reached when they achieve a 50% to 90% correct response rate.

Under View Placement Test Results, beside each student name you will see: Date Tested, Starting Level & Percentage, Finishing Level & Percentage, Status and Recommendation. The student’s status will be briefly described as follows (detailed explanations can be found under How to Read the Placement Table):

• IN PROGRESS– The student is still currently working on the placement tests. The placement test results may be inconclusive at this point and will require the student to take additional placement tests to determine their suitable reading level.
• EXCELLED– The student has completed the placement test(s) and it is recommended that they proceed at a higher reading level than their starting level.
• MAINTAINED– The student has completed the placement test(s) and it is recommended that they proceed at the same reading level as their starting level.
• STRUGGLED– The student has completed the placement test(s) and it is recommended that they proceed at a lower reading level than their starting level.
• REASSIGNED– The teacher has reassigned the student's reading level.

How to Read the Placement Table

The image below shows an example of the Placement Table after three students have completed their placement tests:

The columns contain the following information:

Name - the name of the student who completed the placement test. You may click on the name of the student to find out all the placement tests attempted by them over the years.

Date Tested – the date when the student completed their last placement test.

Starting Level & Percentage – Starting Level indicates the initial reading level at which the student began their placement test, and Percentage indicates the number of correct responses they gave in percentage (%) format. How to determine a student’s Starting Level will depend on the teacher's awareness of their reading ability. The Percentage value will determine whether the student is required to take another placement test at a lower or higher reading level, or whether they remain on the same level.

Finishing Level & Percentage – Finishing Level indicates the last reading level at which the student completed their placement test, and the Percentage indicates the number of correct responses in percentage (%) format.

The placement test attempts, Starting Level & Percentage and Finishing Level & Percentage, will determine each student's Status while undertaking placement test(s) and the Recommendation regarding their reading level.

Timing - For students who have taken the Placement Test after 12 May 2020, the Timing column will display how long the student spent completing the test.

Status – the student's performance after having completed the placement test(s). The final statuses will be Excelled, Maintained or Struggled. These statuses do not require additional placement tests. In Progress indicates that additional placement testing is required to determine the student’s suitable reading level.

Recommendation – the recommended reading level for the student.

The student's status will be one of the following:

• IN PROGRESS– The student is still currently working on the placement test. The placement test results may be inconclusive at this point and will require the student to take additional placement tests to determine their suitable reading level.
• EXCELLED- The student has completed the placement test at their starting level and has achieved a 90% or more correct response rate. The student should attempt to take placement tests at a higher reading level until their suitable reading level is achieved. The EXCELLED status appears when the recommended reading level is higher than the student’s starting level.
• MAINTAINED– The student has completed the placement test at their starting level and has achieved a 50% to 90% correct response rate. Or, the student had excelled at their starting level, but has struggled with the higher-level placement test, and so their recommended reading level should remain the same as their starting level. The MAINTAINED status appears when the recommended reading level is the same as the student’s starting level.
• STRUGGLED– The student has completed the placement test and experienced difficulties at their starting reading level, i.e. the student achieved less than a 50% correct response rate. The student should attempt to take placement tests at a lower reading level until their suitable reading level is achieved. The STRUGGLED status appears when the recommended reading level is lower than the student’s starting level.
• REASSIGNED– The teacher has reassigned the student's reading level.

Once the Placement Centre has placed the student in their recommended reading level, they should remain on that level for the whole year. If the students are struggling with certain reading strategies, they can use the FOCUS Reading module for improvement. If they are excelling at the recommended reading level, they can use Extensions in Reading to progress.

However, if the student is really struggling and the CARS Pretests show that they are in the wrong reading level, the teacher can place them in a lower reading level for the rest of the year.